What Life As A Groupie Was Actually Like In The 1970s

throwing themselves at rock stars. And while Des Barres might condemn Almost Famous as a superficial depiction of

what

their lives were like, it's not entirely wrong. "Don't you think you could be doing something else?" "This is

what

I want to do. This is what I always wanted to do." "Only sleeping with rock stars?" "And their crews." In fact, Crowe's film describes precisely what Des Barres has been saying: Penny Lane begins talking to the young journalist, a Cameron Crowe-inspired character, and gains him access to the gang. According to Dr. Paula Harper, a postdoctoral fellow in musicology at Washington University in St.

Louis, that was a fairly regular part of the

groupie

's

life

. Harper went on to explain that the

groupie

s knew all the places to be seen and who was having the best parties. When out-of-town bands showed up for some shows, it was the groupies who made connections. Harper goes so far as to suggest that not only were they acting as experienced public relations experts, but that if their work had been done by a man, they would have been paid. Take Gail Zappa: She hadn't yet married her famous husband when she and her groupie friend traveled to California, bringing The Who's My Generation to one radio station after another.

She said that although it was all for fun, they ended up playing the record on the radio, and that's the kind of thing people usually get paid for. Des Barres believes there is absolutely nothing wrong with the type of groupie who simply seeks to add notches to his bedpost, saying: "You're not hurting anyone. If that's what you want to do, do it." "We would go backstage and then one thing would lead to another." But here's the thing: Some of rock stars' wives and girlfriends have spoken out about the damage the groupie

life

style has done to them.

When Des Barres interviewed groupie-turned-wife Gail Zappa for her book Let's Spend the Night Together, Zappa confirmed that yes, her husband was a big fan of the groupie sex scene even after they got married, and it absolutely bothered her. Zappa recalled: "Well, everyone had groupies. I mean, you couldn't help them. There were aspects of it that weren't easy or fun, and it's not like you could console yourself or cry on their shoulder about it. But what doesn't kill you? , it makes you stronger." "Girls who readily admit that they are fans have a very special kind of mentality, you know.

They aspire to that position." Franka Wright shared her heartbreaking story with The Daily Mail. Longtime wife of Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright, she confronted her husband and her favorite groupie, only to discover that the groupie was waiting. a son of his. The news came on the heels of Franka's fourth miscarriage. Those miscarriages, she said, occurred because she flew with him during his tours. Wright said: "If I wasn't there when he needed me, then he would find another woman to lie in his bed." According to Morgana Welch, she'd go back to the days of free love and baby groupies in a heartbeat.

She is an era that she could never replicate, and she explained that the reason for the change was twofold: after the AIDS crisis and the rise of cocaine as the drug of choice, Welch says, she "went from expressing herself to feeding the ego." ". She added that she had cleaned herself up and said, "I don't want to be left out of this. I want to be there for it." It's something other groupies started to feel too. Pamela Des Barres told Big Issue that if she had any advice for her younger self, it would be to give up drugs, saying: "The first drugs were fine, marijuana and acid, mescaline and everything.

Then they sort of vilified cocaine." ". and pills and stuff. I would tell him to avoid some of that, because there are things I don't remember because I was so high." In Rebel Heart, Bebe Buell also told some scary stories about drug use. In one, another groupie who was dating Alice Cooper at the time She writes, "I called Todd on the phone when he was starting to die. He told another story about how he had given up heroin for life and wrote that it was such a bad experience that he had no doubts." that he would never touch her again.